This photo mash-up of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump (Dillary Clump?) is the kind of thing that gives small children nightmares. (Image Source: TheChive)
Economist Robert Reich, a man whose insights on matters of economics and public policy I respect dearly, and whom I’ve referenced numerous times on this blog, took to his own website to weigh on the refrain he’s heard from numerous Bernie Sanders supporters who see little difference between the two major-party candidates for President of the United States this election cycle. In a piece entitled “Why You Must Get Behind Hillary, Now,” Reich makes an impassioned plea to those voters contemplating a protest vote, whether based on the notion Hillary Clinton is no better than Donald Trump, that if she is better she’s still corrupt, or that the Democratic Party doesn’t deserve our vote owing to their shenanigans. His response to these justifications for choosing anyone but Hillary is threefold:
1. Trump is a crazy asshole.
Robert Reich here is not so much making a defense of Hillary Clinton, who he acknowledges is not perfect, as much as he is pointing out Donald Trump’s flaws. Namely that he’s dangerously unqualified, full of himself, and racist as all hell. Clinton, at the very least, is very qualified. As we’ve heard 10,000 times this campaign, HRC is supremely qualified.
2. Trump is an evil, crazy asshole.
Forget the “lesser of two evils,” says Reich. Trump may actually be pure evil. I’ve talked about how voting him into office is making a deal with the Devil, but this literally may be the case. In all seriousness, Robert Reich here is urging Bernie supporters to be “realistic and practical” in making their choice, insisting they are not abandoning their progressive principles or “selling out” by voting for Clinton. Even though that’s totally what it feels like.
3. I know you don’t want to reward the stupid Democratic Party for being stupid, but don’t potentially punish future generations because of it.
Here, Reich stresses again the need to advance progressive values in accordance with the formation of an economic and political system that adequately represents working Americans. The first priority, however, is beating Donald Trump. Without that, argues Robert Reich, the revolution can’t get started, and will only get set back further because of it.
Of course, I am paraphrasing Reich’s more tactful verbiage for (debatable) entertainment value. Creative license aside, I agree, broadly speaking, with the above points. Certainly, I submit to the assertion Trump does not deserve your vote, and assuming the lesser of two evils paradigm, Hillary wins on that count as well. As for voting for Donald Trump to stick it to Clinton and the other establishment Democrats, by punishing the DNC, you are by proxy rewarding a self-destructive Republican Party that should have never allowed Trump to rise so high in the first place. While voting for Hillary Clinton does not equal a vote for a true progressive, electing Donald Trump is moving even further from these ideals. To borrow an analogy I witnessed on Twitter, voting for Trump instead of Clinton after supporting Bernie Sanders is like ordering, because you can’t have the hot dogs you really want, a bowl of scorpions instead. Robert Reich closes his entry with this stark reminder:
There are just over seven weeks until Election Day. My request to those of you who still don’t want to vote for Hillary Clinton: please reconsider. It is no exaggeration to say the fate of the nation and the world are at stake.
Rather doom-and-gloom, no? Still, I believe Reich is only speaking in such a sobering way because of the gravity of the situation. Donald Trump should not be President of the United States, and if he does win the race, he will probably be a disaster in this role. There’s no need to mince words in this regard—not at this late hour.
Robert Reich is completely right to make this appeal to voters’ better judgment. That we’re less than two months away from the election in November, however, and he’s still having to try to convince Bernie supporters and other would-be protest voters there is a difference between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, does not bode well for his ability or anyone else’s, for that matter, to sway their opinions. Having far fewer Facebook subscribers to my name, I am in a yet worse position to change the minds of those in dissent. This notwithstanding, let’s review their charges as enumerated by Mr. Reich which may be key to understanding the depths of the #HillNo resistance:
1. Hillary Clinton is no better than Donald Trump.
As Matthew Berry of ESPN fantasy sports might say, “This is factually incorrect.” Hillary Clinton is certainly better than Donald Trump. Trump has not only built a campaign on a Mexican wall that is absurdly ill-advised and would be incredibly wasteful, but he has run on a platform of jingoistic hate speech. Clinton, for her part, has tried to capitalize on her primary competitor’s most offensive remarks, even busting out the slogan “love trumps hate” with obvious allusion to her Republican rival as part of this attempt to distinguish herself to independent and undecided voters. Of course, the concern with Hillary is that she has repressed genuine emotion for so long she can’t actually feel love anymore, much as an android might claim to express love for a pet cat, so that is its own issue. Regardless of her robo-feelings, Hillary Clinton is a better choice than Donald Trump. This does not necessarily mean she is good, mind you, just better than the major-party alternative.
2. Clinton is corrupt.
Um, yeah, but so is Trump. For all that has been said about Hillary Clinton, her E-mails and potential ethical and legal violations occurring with respect to the Clinton Foundation and Hillary Victory Fund, Donald Trump still hasn’t released his tax returns, and has a history of cheating people out of money. In fact, it often seems, when they are not intentionally trying to lose the race by saying something stupid (especially Trump), some unsavory detail about their present situation or past misdeeds surfaces to make us wonder whether or not they have been purposely aiming to out-corrupt one another. In my mind, calling Hillary Clinton corrupt without indicting Donald Trump of the same is allowing a professional con man to fool you by deflecting or by using legal smoke and mirrors to hide his wrongdoing. Clinton’s no saint, but Trump very well may be going to Hell at the end of his story. You know, assuming he’s not Beelzebub to begin with.
3. The Democratic Party doesn’t deserve our vote.
This is probably true. Concordant with Robert Reich’s aforementioned arguments, however, neither does the backwards Republican Party, whose convention was eschewed by both Justin Bieber and Tim Tebow, and which Third Eye Blind—yes, “Semi-Charmed Life” playing Third Eye f**king Blind—performed at just to troll the attendees. The GOP has allowed itself to essentially become an enemy of homosexuals, minorities, sensible gun laws, science, women’s rights and the working class, among other groups. The Democratic establishment may not have done much to earn our vote, but much of the Republican establishment is an embarrassment to the American freedoms it claims to protect.
The photo that launched a thousand memes. Maybe Bill Maher is right. Maybe Hillary Clinton could benefit by becoming “the Notorious HRC.” (Photo Credit: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
While perhaps unlikely, this thinking could become moot once the presidential debates begin and a yet larger segment of the population gets to witness how completely deficient Donald Trump is in the areas of domestic and foreign policy. Which is pretty much all the policy there is to discuss, so here’s hoping Trump can really put his proverbial foot in his mouth—and often. Still, less than 50 days away from the general election, if we’re still having to wax theoretical about whether the American public might comprehend how deeply unfit Donald Trump is for the highest office in the United States, perhaps we’re barking up the wrong tree. That is, even putting aside his incredible insensitivity toward blacks, the disabled, Jews, members of the media, Mexicans, Muslims, spouses of political rivals, veterans, victims of gun violence, women, and probably scores more groups I can’t immediately bring to mind—admittedly a tough ask, by the way—that the man has nothing developed to his political credit beyond a very costly plan for immigration reform which will only alienate the international community, and that voters don’t see through this fatal flaw, gives many among us pause and makes us wonder why they don’t get this. Unless they do grasp this much, and support him anyway, which, I submit, is ten times worse. If they can’t appreciate this simple truth, then appeals to logic along the lines of Robert Reich’s probably won’t make much of an impact either. For his avid supporters, Trump and his “truthiness” tends to win over more objective measures.
Knowing this, from a campaign strategy perspective, how do we pursue the necessary votes to keep Donald Trump from the White House? As per the usual, the results of polls may vary, but despite her best efforts, Hillary Clinton is still ahead nationally by a slim margin of about 5%. Of course, if we’re familiar with our old friend the electoral college, we know that presidential races are not won based on overall votes, but owing to performance in individual states, necessitating the elaboration of convoluted what-if scenarios and giving John King another chance to satisfy his apparent touch-screen map fetish. With this in mind, on the state-by-state front, other polls would indicate that the race is more or less neck-and-neck in key battleground/swing states, and with Hillary possibly galvanizing the cause for Trump among his potential supporters with her “basket of deplorables” comment, the presidential race may be even closer than most of us think. Taking this all into account, let’s finally talk turkey on how to address the looming specter of a Donald Trump presidency:
1. Look to recent history to demonstrate that Donald Trump could totally f**king win.
For all the doomsday bluster about Donald Trump possibly winning the presidency that I’ve seen contained in the litany of E-mails I currently receive because of my affiliation as a registered Democrat (which only came about because I wanted to vote for Bernie Sanders in my state primary), as well as my contributions to charitable causes and political campaigns, Democrats, on the whole, don’t seem to be taking this whole voting thing as seriously as the Republican base is, or at least not seriously enough to inspire any real sense of confidence heading into November.
By now, we should understand that if there’s one thing cranky old whites—or COWs, as I call them—like to do: it’s vote. (Presumably, this is second among their favorite things next to telling kids to get off their lawn.) In recent American history, the 2010 mid-term elections were a shellacking of Democratic Party candidates, likely at the hands of voters who were either already disenfranchised with President Obama’s policies, or never wanted a black president in the first place. This occurred, in part, to an overall low voter turnout rate. In international history, but even more recently, the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union. It still feels weird to say. Turnout was higher in this referendum vote, and the victory for Team Leave was much less decisive than in the 2010 U.S. mid-terms, but on the strength of—you guessed it, herd-mentality COWs scared about Muslims and convinced by unrealistic economic processes—pro-Brexit forces were able to win the day, and as many submit, endanger Britain’s economic future. (Good job, lords and ladies!) The parallels to this presidential election are, by now, obvious. If nothing else, Democrats who avidly support Hillary Clinton need to vote to cancel out the likely-more-committed GOP voters. You wanted her—now you have to elect her.
2. Stop treating Hillary as more than the alternative to Trump.
This is perhaps a microcosm of the race as a whole, and if nothing else, is telling as to where we are in the seemingly never-ending 2016 presidential campaign. In explaining why he plans to vote for Hillary Clinton in the upcoming election at a public debate against Rep. David Jolly (R), former governor of Florida and Republican-turned-Democrat Charlie Crist said this of the potential Madam President: “The thing I like most about her is steady. I believe she is strong. I believe she is honest.” After that last bit, though, the crowd didn’t cheer or applaud. They laughed—and since there was no one to laugh with, they must have been laughing at her. See, here’s the thing: for all the people who think Hillary Clinton has been unfairly targeted by Republicans and has come out of all her trials by fire unburnt, there are as many people or more who just aren’t buying what the Clinton campaign and an army of Democratic supporters are selling. They don’t see her as a sound decision-maker, especially when considering her tenure as Secretary of State and her penchant for promoting regime change. They don’t view her as likely to keep her progressive promises if she makes it to the White House. They don’t reckon she is particularly strong, though this likely has something to do with presumed doubts about her physical health, something I feel should be off-limits, but tell that to her detractors. And most importantly, they don’t believe she is honest. Not in the slightest.
So, let’s dispense with the rhetoric for all but the bottiest of the Hillbots and the staunchest of the Democratic Party loyalists. If you’re voting for Hillary Clinton, there’s a strong likelihood you’re not voting for Hillary Clinton. You’re voting for cold neoliberal pragmatism. You’re voting for incremental progress. Perhaps you’re voting strictly to usher in the first female president, or to continue the legacy/precedent set by Barack Obama—whatever you think that entails. But you’re voting first and foremost to block Donald Trump. We don’t need any more than that.
3. Specifically for the woman herself, don’t try to be likable. (After all, it hasn’t really worked all that well anyway.)
This is akin to what Bill Maher was asking of Hillary Clinton a short while back when he told her to embrace her dark side and become the “Notorious HRC,” the “super-villain” Republicans and Bernie-or-Busters conceive of her to be. Hillary apologized after her “basket of deplorables” remark, but only on the aspect of calling “half” of Trump’s supporters by this term, and without a hint of irony, at that. While it was indeed an ill-advised comment by Clinton, for once, it would be refreshing if she would simply double-down on what many see as a gaffe by her, refuse to apologize—even though she didn’t really give a full apology to begin with—and do something to inspire her base of support. “You want me to say sorry for calling half of you ‘deplorables.” Well, I am sorry—sorry I didn’t call all of you that! My opponent is an asshole. If you like him, you’re probably one too! Don’t care for what I’m telling you? Want to call me a ‘bitch’ about it? Good. I’m the baddest bitch in these United States! Sorry—I ain’t sorry.”
In this way, Hillary Clinton could take a cue from Beyoncé, or perhaps even channel her inner Kelis. In the lead-in to her 2006 single “Bossy,” Kelis speaks, “You don’t have to love me/You don’t even have to like me/But you will respect me.” Why? Because she’s a motherf**king boss! That’s the kind of attitude that galvanizes your own base as much as it does the other side. That’s the Democratic Party representative we need! Show them who wears the pantsuits in this race, Hillary!
Suggestion #3 is obviously unlikely to be put into practice, even though, like Tyrion Lannister telling the witnesses to his trial he wishes he could be the monster they’ve made him out to be—and that he had enough poison to wipe out the lot of them—I’m sure a lot of people would love the chutzpah Hillary Clinton would demonstrate to tell millions of prospective voters she doesn’t care what they think about her and that she can run the country a hell of a lot better than stupid Donald Trump. Then, presumably, there would be a trial by combat or something. Maybe a head smashed in or two. Now that would be some sort of political process!
Unfortunately, we aren’t apt to see HRC throw shade on a sizable portion of the electorate, drop the mic, and walk away, nor is it conceivable we would observe Donald Trump being mutilated by a gargantuan man likened to a geological formation. Instead, though, arguably the best approach for the Clinton campaign would be to encourage the most fervent supporters to cast their vote, cut their losses with potential voters who can’t see past Trump’s more glaring flaws, and in general, give less of a shit about what people think outside of actual polling numbers. Hillary, you’ve been dancing with Trump and around the truth for months now. It’s time to punch him in the mouth and see if he has the glass jaw we imagine he does.
“That Humpty Dumpty was a real loser. Couldn’t even survive a fall! Sad! When I am President, our falls will be even greater, and we will put America back together again, believe me!” (Image retrieved from madmagazine.com.)
When Donald Trump “misstates” something (read: “outright lies”) or “outlines a policy plan” (read: “has a really bad idea”), you’ve got to give it to the man—he tends to commit to it. Whereas Hillary Clinton can’t recall having conversations about classified E-mails, or can’t remember having specific conversations about classified E-mails, or blames a concussion on not being able to follow protocol, or claims she doesn’t know how thousands of messages got deleted, or expresses the belief that Colin Powell whispered sweet nothings about private servers in her ear, Trump has been largely resolute on his awful anti-immigrant agenda. By now, he and his campaign are largely synonymous with the notion of building a wall at the Mexican border. Dude’s got a real hard-on over the whole thing, in fact. Don’t like the wall? That shit just got ten feet higher! Still sassing back? We’ll add ten more! And we can keep going like this too! Why? Mexico’s paying for the whole damn thing! So put away that wallet, Joe America, our construction workers are only accepting pesos from here on out!
Heretofore, Donald Trump’s policy on curbing illegal immigration to the United States has been criticized as lacking specificity—and that’s a nice way of putting it. This past Wednesday, capping off a fun-filled month of August in this presidential campaign (obvious sarcasm intended), Trump spoke to supporters outlining his “detailed” policy on “one of the greatest challenges facing our country today” in illegal immigration, from—where else?—Phoenix, Arizona. I’m going to give you 24 choice quotes from his address—one for each hour of the day!—with my own annotations, and you can reach your own conclusions from there. Brace yourself.
1. “The truth is our immigration system is worse than anybody ever realized. But the facts aren’t known because the media won’t report on them. The politicians won’t talk about them and the special interests spend a lot of money trying to cover them up because they are making an absolute fortune. That’s the way it is. Today, on a very complicated and very difficult subject, you will get the truth. The fundamental problem with the immigration system in our country is that it serves the needs of wealthy donors, political activists and powerful, powerful politicians.”
Groan. We’ve only just begun, and already, I’m somewhat regretting my decision to examine what Donald Trump actually, you know, says. It seems almost disingenuous for a man who has gained so much free publicity from the media without being challenged more seriously on aspects of his finances (tax returns, cough, cough) to turn around and blame the media on anything, but that’s our Donald, after all. Apparently, there’s a lot of misinformation by omission concerning immigration trends in America happening on the part of some vague conspiracy involving a leftist media, lobbyists, politicians, and wealthy private citizens. It’s not that corporations and other businesses could actually be to blame—including your own, Mr. Trump. Not that at all.
2. “We…have to be honest about the fact that not everyone who seeks to join our country will be able to successfully assimilate. Sometimes it’s just not going to work out. It’s our right, as a sovereign nation, to chose immigrants that we think are the likeliest to thrive and flourish and love us.”
Trump doesn’t mention Muslims here. But you know he totally f**king means it.
3. “A 2011 report from the Government Accountability Office found that illegal immigrants and other non-citizens, in our prisons and jails together, had around 25,000 homicide arrests to their names, 25,000.”
Ooh, look! Donald Trump has learned to make citations! Besides the fact this statistic is misleading in that it makes it seem as if Mexican and other immigrants were responsible for this many murders in 2011 alone—the FBI reports fewer than 15,000 estimated homicides that year, but what do they know?—it cherry-picks the figure from one group without considering how much violent crime is perpetrated by American citizens. Of course, though, that doesn’t fit the narrative.
4. “Illegal immigration costs our country more than $113 billion a year. And this is what we get. For the money we are going to spend on illegal immigration over the next 10 years, we could provide one million at-risk students with a school voucher, which so many people are wanting. While there are many illegal immigrants in our country who are good people, many, many, this doesn’t change the fact that most illegal immigrants are lower skilled workers with less education, who compete directly against vulnerable American workers, and that these illegal workers draw much more out from the system than they can ever possibly pay back. And they’re hurting a lot of our people that cannot get jobs under any circumstances.”
Trump throws so much into one thought that it’s almost impossible to address it all in the time you would need to consider it fully before moving on to the next tangent. With the benefit of being able to rationally confront his remarks retrospectively, however, let’s give it a whirl. 1) Republicans often like to tout school vouchers as an alternative for our “failing” public schools, but not only are they to a large extent responsible for this failure based on their refusal to fund education and other public programs, but their assumption that school choice is a vastly superior option, especially when the private sector is involved, is a fallacy. In many cases, these additional options are no better than their public-school counterparts, if not worse, and what’s more, affording our presumed “best and brightest” to pick and choose their school when others cannot just encourages division along racial and socioeconomic lines. 2) If these illegal immigrants are such good people, what’s the problem? OK, even if the issue is that they supposedly “take our jobs,” this claim is overblown, because often times, they are doing dangerous or more physically intensive work in agriculture or, say, the meat packing industry, jobs that American citizens don’t want to do, or otherwise have been challenged more significantly by trends like automation and global trade.
But wait—there’s more! 3) According to Harvard economist George Borjas, as cited in this NPR Q&A, the net effect on the average American’s wealth as a result of illegal immigration is minimal (less than 1%), and if anything, slightly positive. While the report acknowledges the negative economic effects of illegal immigration, including depressing effects on wages of low-skilled workers and an income tax shortfall, on the other hand, undocumented immigrant labor does make products and services more affordable, not to mention these immigrants do pay property and sales taxes and are ineligible for certain classes of benefits as non-citizens. Let’s not let these considerations get in the way of a good argument, though.
5. Only the out of touch media elites think the biggest problems facing America — you know this, this is what they talk about, facing American society today is that there are 11 million illegal immigrants who don’t have legal status. And, they also think the biggest thing, and you know this, it’s not nuclear, and it’s not ISIS, it’s not Russia, it’s not China, it’s global warming.
For Christ’s sake! We don’t have time to argue the merits of global f**king warming! Moving along.
6. Hillary Clinton, for instance, talks constantly about her fears that families will be separated, but she’s not talking about the American families who have been permanently separated from their loved ones because of a preventable homicide, because of a preventable death, because of murder. No, she’s only talking about families who come here in violation of the law. We will treat everyone living or residing in our country with great dignity. So important. We will be fair, just, and compassionate to all, but our greatest compassion must be for our American citizens.
Commence with the ritual Clinton-bashing! We’ve already discussed how Donald Trump’s figures on violent crime committed by immigrants are kind of wonky, but let’s tackle the notion of relative compassion. If we’re truly being compassionate to all, then at heart, it shouldn’t matter who is receiving more or less compassion, as if you can modulate such things just like that. I’ve heard it said that Jesus never went out of his way for anyone—because He never considered helping anyone to be going out of His way. Just something to think about.
7. “[Hillary Clinton’s] plan [is] to bring in 620,000 new refugees from Syria and that region over a short period of time. And even yesterday, when you were watching the news, you saw thousands and thousands of people coming in from Syria. What is wrong with our politicians, our leaders if we can call them that. What the hell are we doing?”
8. “We will build a great wall along the southern border. And Mexico will pay for the wall. One hundred percent. They don’t know it yet, but they’re going to pay for it. And they’re great people and great leaders but they’re going to pay for the wall. On day one, we will begin working on an impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful southern border wall. We will use the best technology, including above and below ground sensors that’s for the tunnels. Remember that, above and below. Above and below ground sensors. Towers, aerial surveillance and manpower to supplement the wall, find and dislocate tunnels and keep out criminal cartels and Mexico you know that, will work with us. I really believe it. Mexico will work with us. I absolutely believe it. And especially after meeting with their wonderful, wonderful president today. I really believe they want to solve this problem along with us, and I’m sure they will.”
OK, now we start to get to Trump’s plan a.k.a. the 10-point path to Crazy Town. Point One, obviously, is the wall, which is his baby and the centerpiece of his plan. Which is unfortunate, because it’s a complete disaster in the making. Let’s disregard any talk of effectiveness in light of the cost of this theoretical monstrosity. Donald Trump has averred the cost of the wall would be only about $8 billion or so, but more realistic estimates suggest the actual price tag could reach upwards of $25 billion. Wait, you say, it’s OK. Mexico’s paying for the wall. I’m no expert in international relations, but Mexico is not going to pay for that wall. Trump acts as if, because Mexico has a trade deficit with the United States, they just have money lying around to throw at a grandiose construction project, but this just demonstrates the man’s lack of understanding of economics despite his professed business acumen.
This is aside from the reality that Mexico has never said they would pay for the wall. Former Mexican president Vicente Fox dropped F-bombs over the whole idea, and current Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto has categorically denied his country will foot the bill, despite Donald Trump’s insistence it will, and moreover, referred to the Republican Party nominee’s proposals as a “threat to the future of Mexico.” So, yeah, seriously, this whole wall thing-a-ma-jig is a waste of time and money, won’t lead to permanent jobs being created, will alienate Spanish-speaking people across the globe, and on top of that, probably won’t work all that well. And that people actually would vote for Trump based on the wall scares the shit out of me.
9. “We are going to end catch and release. We catch them, oh go ahead. We catch them, go ahead. Under my administration, anyone who illegally crosses the border will be detained until they are removed out of our country and back to the country from which they came. And they’ll be brought great distances. We’re not dropping them right across. They learned that. President Eisenhower. They’d drop them across, right across, and they’d come back. And across. Then when they flew them to a long distance, all of a sudden that was the end. We will take them great distances. But we will take them to the country where they came from, O.K.?”
Um, yeah, Mr. Trump, you’re not referring to Eisenhower’s operation in name by design, I can guarantee it. What he’s invoking, by the way, is a little something called, ahem, Operation Wetback, and by many objective measures, it was a failure. For one, on a human rights dimension, the quick-minded nature of the program’s relocations often resulted in deportees being unable to claim their property in the United States, let alone notify their family they had been deported in the first place. In addition, there were reports of beatings by Border Patrol agents, and when the deportees actually got to Mexico, they faced hardship from being relocated to unfamiliar territories, if not dying from the sweltering Mexican heat. Perhaps more significantly, however, in terms of its effectiveness, Operation Wetback did not deter illegal immigration. By the end of the program, about one in five deportees were repeat offenders, and American employers in border areas were undermining border agents’ efforts anyway, hiring undocumented immigrants because of the cheap labor incentive. Needless to say, this is an awful chapter in history with a shitty legacy to match, so I’m not sure why you would even invoke Operation Wetback with a similar initiative.
10. “According to federal data, there are at least two million, two million, think of it, criminal aliens now inside of our country, two million people, criminal aliens. We will begin moving them out day one. As soon as I take office. Day one. In joint operation with local, state, and federal law enforcement. Now, just so you understand, the police, who we all respect—say hello to the police. Boy, they don’t get the credit they deserve. I can tell you. They’re great people. But the police and law enforcement, they know who these people are. They live with these people. They get mocked by these people. They can’t do anything about these people, and they want to. They know who these people are. Day one, my first hour in office, those people are gone. And you can call it deported if you want. The press doesn’t like that term. You can call it whatever the hell you want. They’re gone. Beyond the two million, and there are vast numbers of additional criminal illegal immigrants who have fled, but their days have run out in this country. The crime will stop. They’re going to be gone. It will be over. They’re going out. They’re going out fast.”
Trump is worried about the use of the word “deported” here, but it’s not that term which is the offensive one here. That would be “criminal aliens.” Contrary to popular belief, Mexicans don’t like being referred to as criminals. Call them crazy, I guess. Also, for all his talk about Clinton’s pandering to groups, his appeals to America’s uniformed police are pretty damn blatant. Besides, in general, I feel like the police get their fair share of credit for the important service they provide, and at times, too much, or at least the benefit of the doubt, in instances of violence against minorities. Again, though, that doesn’t fit the narrative that Donald Trump and his supporters wish to hear. My apologies. It’s always the black person’s fault.
11. “We will issue detainers for illegal immigrants who are arrested for any crime whatsoever, and they will be placed into immediate removal proceedings if we even have to do that”.
Any crime? Like, even jaywalking? I know much of this is tough talk, but the itchy trigger finger that Trump is encouraging here would set a dangerous precedent, if for no other reason than it lends itself to profiling and possibly even vigilantism. The vagueness of the phrase “if we even have to do that,” too, is worrisome. Do we just literally throw people over the wall back into Mexico? Or somehow exact a physically worse punishment? What we don’t know might just hurt us, and cause Lady Liberty to hide her face in shame.
12. “My plan also includes cooperating closely with local jurisdictions to remove criminal aliens immediately. We will restore the highly successful Secure Communities Program. Good program. We will expand and revitalize the popular 287(g) partnerships, which will help to identify hundreds of thousands of deportable aliens in local jails that we don’t even know about. Both of these programs have been recklessly gutted by this administration. And those were programs that worked.”
“Highly successful?” If it were highly successful, why was the Secure Communities Program suspended? Maybe it was because it didn’t do an effective job of targeting and curbing violent criminals who immigrated illegally to the United States. Or because it was responsible for numerous cases of people being deported who are actually American citizens. Or because it didn’t allow states and local police forces to opt out, as was first promised. Or because it made people less likely to report serious crimes by undocumented immigrants for fear of being deported. The Secure Communities Program was, in no uncertain terms, an abysmal endeavor, so there’s no reason Donald Trump should be touting its merits. Ditto for 287(g). That provision, put into practice, lacked requisite oversight, diverted police resources away from the investigation of local crimes, and, again, led to profiling of Latino residents in border states. It’s already bad if public policy is marked by ethical lapses, but when it doesn’t even accomplish its stated purpose, it deserves to be deep-sixed. If Trump were hoping to name-drop effectively, he didn’t do it on this occasion.
13. “Within ICE I am going to create a new special deportation task force focused on identifying and quickly removing the most dangerous criminal illegal immigrants in America who have evaded justice just like Hillary Clinton has evaded justice, OK? Maybe they’ll be able to deport her.”
Hmm, new task force—I’m sure this will be handled with the requisite oversight so as to prevent abuses of civil liberties and cost overruns. (If I could, I would put an eye-rolling emoji here for emphasis.) By the way, Mr. Trump, your joke about Hillary being deported isn’t all that funny considering she’s an American citizen and therefore could never be deported. Though the relevance factor would be lost in that he’s done serving as President after this term, Barack Obama being deported is more amusing because stupid, gullible people are convinced he was born outside the country and/or is a secret Muslim. Like, um, yourself. It all would still be reprehensible to suggest, even in jest, but at least your stab at humor would be more spot-on. It’s the principle of the thing, Donald.
14. “We will end the sanctuary cities that have resulted in so many needless deaths. Cities that refuse to cooperate with federal authorities will not receive taxpayer dollars, and we will work with Congress to pass legislation to protect those jurisdictions that do assist federal authorities.”
The idea of sanctuary cities is a complicated one in the light of highly-publicized deaths such as that of Kate Steinle in 2015, who was shot and killed by an undocumented Mexican immigrant who had been deported multiple times, had seven felony convictions to his name, and was on probation at the time of the incident. The Steinle example, however, sticks out because a) San Francisco, the setting of the fateful event, is a sanctuary city, and in this instance, did not honor a detainer from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) because no active warrant existed for the shooter’s arrest, and b) Steinle was white, and a beautiful young woman at that, who presumably loved life, was kind to all people and animals, and all that jazz.
In all seriousness, a loss is a loss, and I can only imagine what Kate Steinle’s family felt and still feels. Still, her death, while tragic, doesn’t mean we necessarily should abandon sanctuary cities wholesale. Errol Louis penned an op-ed piece last year on the subject of sanctuary cities, and he rightly pointed out that numerous cities and other municipalities do not want to have to shoulder the financial and logistical burden of trying to enforce immigration law when resources are at a premium in investigating and stopping all other crimes that happen within their jurisdiction. Not only this, but law enforcement in these same places doesn’t want to jeopardize the trust it stands to lose and has forged with members of Hispanic/Latino communities. Deportation, legally speaking, is a federal enterprise, and Donald Trump’s insistence that only those who comply with ICE’s demands for information and detention would receive federal subsidies is appalling, because it is prejudicial against those areas who oppose his viewpoints, and only encourages local governments to comply meekly to avoid sanctions or try to manipulate the situation such as to maintain the appearance of compliance. Sanctuary cities, despite their concerns, are a bit of a political red herring.
15. “We will immediately terminate President Obama’s two illegal executive amnesties in which he defied federal law and the Constitution to give amnesty to approximately five million illegal immigrants, five million.”
Or we can just continue to have Obama’s executive orders batted around in court, which, owing to how slow the law moves, is pretty much a death sentence anyway, amirite?
16. “We are going to suspend the issuance of visas to any place where adequate screening cannot occur. According to data provided by the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration, and the national interest between 9/11 and the end of 2014, at least 380 foreign born individuals were convicted in terror cases inside the United States. And even right now the largest number of people are under investigation for exactly this that we’ve ever had in the history of our country.”
More vagueness from Donald J. Trump, whose “detailed” plan is seeming less and less accurate as we go along. How do we define “adequate” screening? Who decides such things? How long is the suspension of visa issuance? Indefinite? I ask these questions not only because they deserve to be asked, but because it’s wholly possible Trump has not even considered how to answer them. And in case anyone has forgotten to keep score, THE MAN MIGHT BE ELECTED PRESIDENT. HE SHOULD KNOW THESE THINGS.
17. “Countries in which immigration will be suspended would include places like Syria and Libya. And we are going to stop the tens of thousands of people coming in from Syria. We have no idea who they are, where they come from. There’s no documentation. There’s no paperwork. It’s going to end badly, folks. It’s going to end very, very badly. For the price of resettling one refugee in the United States, 12 could be resettled in a safe zone in their home region. Which I agree with 100 percent. We have to build safe zones and we’ll get the money from Gulf states. We don’t want to put up the money. We owe almost $20 trillion. Doubled since Obama took office, our national debt. But we will get the money from Gulf states and others. We’ll supervise it. We’ll build safe zones which is something that I think all of us want to see.”
Wow. There’s a lot to unpack here, and a lot of it just further cements the idea that Trump either doesn’t understand what he’s talking about, is intentionally misinforming the public, or both. Let’s start with the vetting of refugees from countries like Syria, which just happens to be some of the most intensive vetting done by the United States for refugees from any country, or by any country, for that matter. At any rate, the vetting process for these potential entrants into the U.S. is sadly better than the one, ahem, used for Republican Party presidential candidates. This leads into the discussion of theoretical safe zones in Syria. Ideally, and depending on the actual wishes of the refugees originally displaced, they would be able to return to their homeland. But right now? THERE ARE NO F**KING SAFE ZONES IN SYRIA! Certainly not with Assad in power, and not likely in the foreseeable future with all the factions currently there, not to mention the specter of jihadism in the region.
Finally, let’s talk about the idea of Persian Gulf states paying for these ill-conceived “safe” zones. These are the same countries that have refused to take in refugees, people who are fleeing violence and other unspeakable horrors in the nations of their birth. Much like Mexico ponying up for the cost of a $25+ billion wall, there is little to no chance these places are going to volunteer to throw money at the problem, and for all his talk of renegotiating bad deals, Donald Trump is unlikely to be able to convince foreign leaders or wealthy private individuals to fork over the cash. Most certainly, America would be adding to the national debt to authorize and enforce these safe zones, and by that token, would be as bad “as Barack Obama,” even though the conditions which brought about our deficit spending were in place long before he took office.
18. “Another reform involves new screening tests for all applicants that include, and this is so important, especially if you get the right people. And we will get the right people. An ideological certification to make sure that those we are admitting to our country share our values and love our people. Thank you. We’re very proud of our country. Aren’t we? Really? With all it’s going through, we’re very proud of our country. For instance, in the last five years, we’ve admitted nearly 100,000 immigrants from Iraq and Afghanistan. And these two countries, according to Pew Research, a majority of residents say that the barbaric practice of honor killings against women are often or sometimes justified. That’s what they say. That’s what they say. They’re justified. Right? And we’re admitting them to our country. Applicants will be asked their views about honor killings, about respect for women and gays and minorities. Attitudes on radical Islam, which our president refuses to say, and many other topics as part of this vetting procedure. And if we have the right people doing it, believe me, very, very few will slip through the cracks. Hopefully, none.”
Ugh. This is getting tiresome. I can almost see why the media doesn’t spend more time wading through Trump’s bullshit. Almost. So you’re saying we want immigrants who “share our values.” Again, who decides this? You, a man who has advocated bringing back waterboarding and torturing the families of suspected terrorists? You, a man who has made numerous sexist remarks during this campaign alone, likened an entire country to a haven for rapists and murderers, and may or may not have expressed the belief that “laziness is a trait in blacks”? If you’re our shining example of American values, we’re in some deep doo-doo, let me tell you. Also, right, “radical Islam.” Because the fundamental problem is with their entire religion, not with those kill in the name of. If you can call jihadists radical Islamists, I submit I should be able to call those who denounce homosexuality as a sin and harass Planned Parenthood workers as radical Christians. Because if that’s what “our God” wants, then I think I need a new one.
19. “There are at least 23 countries that refuse to take their people back after they’ve been ordered to leave the United States. Including large numbers of violent criminals, they won’t take them back. So we say, OK, we’ll keep them. Not going to happen with me, not going to happen with me.”
Yeah, you and what army? Oh, right, that army. Still, are you prepared, Mr. Trump, to use force to get your way on this issue, risking American lives and sanctions from other nations at what is considered an affront to diplomacy? Because that seems to be the only way you’re going to get these countries to play ball with you—unless you really are the great negotiator you think you are.
20. “We will finally complete the biometric entry-exit visa tracking system which we need desperately. For years Congress has required biometric entry-exit visa tracking systems, but it has never been completed. The politicians are all talk, no action, never happens. Never happens.”
You know, Donald Trump is full of big ideas that cost a nice chunk of change. Probably because his other big ideas, all his life, have been paid for by other people, namely his rich daddy, creditors he has been unable to recompense, and investors he has bilked. He’s convinced Mexico will cover the cost of the wall. (They won’t.) He assumes neighboring countries in the Middle East will make generous donations to ensure safe zones are created in Syria. (They won’t.) So, when it comes to potentially including biometric data (facial, fingerprint, or iris recognition) on passports stored on radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips, once more, it will be on someone else’s tab—yours and mine. Here’s the thing about biometric passports. Not only is the chip technology used to store identifying information costly to produce, but there are security concerns with storing this data all in one place, as there is the potential to hack and exploit this info, as well as obvious concerns about civil liberties in the seeming invasiveness of these requirements. Thus, yet again, Trump is oversimplifying a complicated issue and dining on people’s fear and paranoia. Great work, Donald.
21. “We will turn off the jobs and benefits magnet. We will ensure that E-Verify is used to the fullest extent possible under existing law, and we will work with Congress to strengthen and expand its use across the country. Immigration law doesn’t exist for the purpose of keeping criminals out. It exists to protect all aspects of American life. The work site, the welfare office, the education system, and everything else.”
I’ve touched upon the notion that Donald Trump’s pointing of the finger at undocumented immigrants on the problematic domestic employment situation is a red herring because often, these immigrants are doing work that American citizens are not flocking to. As for the benefits situation, there seems to be a lot of confusion concerning what benefits undocumented immigrants are and are not permitted. Those who don’t have legal status can get compulsory public education for their children and emergency medical care, as well as potentially worker’s compensation, but numerous benefits, including food stamps, Medicaid, Social Security, state and local benefits, and welfare, are not available to non-citizens, at least in theory. Sure, there are abuses of benefits programs, but potential for fraud exists in many facets of our lives, and irrespective of legal immigration status, so while this is not to undermine the seriousness of people taking advantage of gaps in reporting false claims, let’s not overstate the severity of the problem when the occasion arises. We also shouldn’t demean the contributions made by hard-working undocumented immigrants who do contribute in the form of paid taxes—even when they can’t make use of the benefits they fund.
22. “We’re going to bring our jobs back home. And if companies want to leave Arizona and if they want to leave other states, there’s going to be a lot of trouble for them. It’s not going to be so easy. There will be consequence. Remember that. There will be consequences. They’re not going to be leaving, go to another country, make the product, sell it into the United States, and all we end up with is no taxes and total unemployment. It’s not going to happen. There will be consequences.”
You know, many states and municipalities at least try some sort of carrot-and-stick incentive to encourage American corporations to stay at home, namely tax breaks. Apparently, Donald Trump is dispensing with the carrot portion of the metaphor and just shaking the stick at Fortune 500 companies and their ilk. Is this all his warning is? Could he join rival Hillary Clinton in the call for an exit tax? Does he have other consequences in mind? Or did he make all this up on the spot and would be forced to come up with something after the fact should he become President of these United States? It’s anyone’s guess, and sadly, I don’t think Trump has any more of a clue than we do.
23. “So let’s now talk about the big picture. These 10 steps, if rigorously followed and enforced, will accomplish more in a matter of months than our politicians have accomplished on this issue in the last 50 years. It’s going to happen, folks. Because I am proudly not a politician, because I am not behold to any special interest, I’ve spent a lot of money on my campaign, I’ll tell you. I write those checks. Nobody owns Trump. I will get this done for you and for your family. We’ll do it right. You’ll be proud of our country again. We’ll do it right. We will accomplish all of the steps outlined above. And, when we do, peace and law and justice and prosperity will prevail. Crime will go down. Border crossings will plummet. Gangs will disappear. And the gangs are all over the place. And welfare use will decrease. We will have a peace dividend to spend on rebuilding America, beginning with our American inner cities. We’re going to rebuild them, for once and for all.”
You’re not a politician—except you have been one for the last year and change, and are a major-party candidate for President—so the grace period is effectively over, Mr. Trump. You say you’ve spent a lot of your money on your campaign, but you’ve been borrowing the money, as you usually do, and from yourself, no less, and there’s evidence to suggest people within your own campaign are not being compensated as they should. Furthermore, you say you will accomplish all these things, so what is your timetable? One year? Two years? The kinds of things you’re promising certainly won’t be accomplished within a single presidential term, and sound more like the boasts of a snake oil salesman than the policy plan of a legitimate presidential candidate.
24. “The result will be millions more illegal immigrants; thousands of more violent, horrible crimes; and total chaos and lawlessness. That’s what’s going to happen, as sure as you’re standing there. This election, and I believe this, is our last chance to secure the border, stop illegal immigration and reform our laws to make your life better. I really believe this is it. This is our last time. November 8. November 8. You got to get out and vote on November 8. It’s our last chance. It’s our last chance. And that includes Supreme Court justices and the Second Amendment. Remember that. So I want to remind everyone what we’re fighting for and who we are fighting for.”
Wait—what are we fighting for again? I thought we were talking about illegal immigration. Now you’re bringing in Supreme Court justices, except for the idea that Barack Obama already nominated a fine candidate in Merrick Garland—whom your buddies in the GOP kindly refused to even acknowledge and do their job by hearing—and the Second Amendment—which Hillary Clinton has said she doesn’t want to repeal, and probably couldn’t if she wanted to—but which you’re convincing people she’s coming after.
So, now that I don’t know what we are fighting for, or even who we are, now I’m curious as to who we are fighting for. Future generations? The children of undocumented immigrants? Nah, you want to deport their parents as soon as possible and probably want to reverse birthright citizenship while you’re at it. The alt-right? Other white supremacists? At the end of the day, Mr. Trump, your campaign, when all is said and done, has been about one person and one person only: yourself. You don’t give a shit about the average American. How could you? You’ve never been one, and your pretense that you’re running on behalf of the “little guy” is as nauseating as your relationship with your daughter, Ivanka. You’re a fraud, a liar, a cheat, and an all-around terrible person. I proverbially spit on your candidacy, much like anyone who actually bought one of Trump Steaks surely spit what he or she chewed back onto his or her plate. That’s what I truly think about Trump-Pence 2016.
Sweet Jesus! There’d be nacho cheese and black beans everywhere! (Image retrieved from boringpittsburgh.com.)
Donald Trump’s depiction of the future of the country, should he fail to win in his bid for the presidency, is an apocalyptic one, filled with visions of Mexicans overrunning America and general anarchy and lawlessness, like something you would see in a scene from The Purge movies. Ironically, this is what many envision will happen should Trump succeed in his bid, replete with rivers of blood and the Four Horsemen and whatnot. Regardless of who may or may not be correct in matters cataclysmic, this prediction of doom and gloom taps into the fear of a significant portion of the electorate, of which a chief subset is working-class whites. Perhaps no better symbol of a Trumpian foretelling of the United States’ downfall exists, however, than one uttered by one of his Latino supporters (yes, they do exist!). In a recent panel discussion led by Joy-Ann Reid of MSNBC, Marco Gutierrez, founder of the organization Latinos for Trump, had this to say, apropos of nothing:
“My culture is a very dominant culture, and it’s imposing and it’s causing problems. If you don’t do something about it, you’re going to have taco trucks on every corner.”
The almost uniform response to this, on social media and in news story Comments sections, and deservedly so, was, “Um, why is this a bad thing? Tacos are delicious.” And maybe there’s a lesson in this reaction. For all the blustering about a Mexican invasion, and the fear and hate Donald Trump’s campaign has engendered, at heart, there is much more to appreciate concerning Hispanic/Latino contributions to our proud melting pot of a nation than the actions of a few bad manzanas could ever hope to spoil. This includes, yes, tacos, enchiladas, fajitas, burritos, and any other delicious confluences of tortillas, meat, cheese and/or vegetables you can think of. And the Spanish language. Es muy bueno. And plus, there are other hallmarks of cultural significance, including works of art, film, literature, music and poetry, and other genres I can’t readily think of off the top of my head. And, you know, if we believe that people are inherently good and not out to screw the rest of us over, there’s a whole lot of hard-working, law-abiding individuals to call neighbors. In this respect, I feel the vast majority of immigrants, Mexican or Muslim, legal or not, understand the American spirit better than some self-identifying “true Americans” do.
For those who support Trump in his goal of being elected to the highest office in the land, there are numerous reasons why they might favor the man of the orange complexion. Maybe they’re Republican loyalists. Maybe they hate Hillary Clinton with a passion and will vote for anyone but her. Maybe they secretly want Democrats to succeed down the road in the legislature and in the White House, and are inviting a blowing-up of the system we know to rebuild it in a better, more progressive fashion. However they justify their choice, though, they should know that they can’t separate any more meritorious reasons for backing Donald Trump—such as his business acumen or his straight talk, both of which are highly overrated—from his hateful rhetoric on immigration and his uninspired 10-point plan to save America from the “Mexi-pocalypse.” It’s an agenda built on mistruths and outright lies about immigration trends, insufficiently detailed solutions to, ahem, trumped-up problem areas, and one that undoubtedly will cost the United States tens of billions of dollars and standing in the international community, with little to no tangible reward to show for it.
While this isn’t an endorsement of Hillary Clinton, as I feel her presidency would preserve a fundamentally flawed status quo in the name of incremental progress the likes of which fewer and fewer working-class Americans can afford, at least she wouldn’t send the country on a blatantly morally-regressive path. President Trump would, though. Taco trucks on every corner? Nope, the real danger would be Humpty Trumpty looking down from atop his Mexican wall like some sort of dictatorial ruler. If that comes to pass, all of our horses and all of our men might not be able to put the country back together again.
United States of Joe 